Interview with Sheldon Chadwick

Sheldon Chadwick is a seventh generation fairground Showman. He has completed a PhD at Liverpool John Moores University on the ethnographic study of Showmen and the mental health of the community. He is also the founder of The Showmen’s Mental Health Awareness Charity and for some time served as the Education Liaison Officer for the Lancashire Section of the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain. Sheldon is an advocate of his community and campaigns to raise awareness of their history and contributions to mainstream society. He also campaigns against discrimination and provides support for showmen in education and accessing Higher Education.

 In this episode the term Showmen is used to include men, women and children as the preferred term used by the majority of the travelling fairground community to refer to themselves. However, we do acknowledge that some members of the community choose to use other terms such as Showpeople or travellers.